Classically Elegant Jewelry Designs to Let You Shine!
Beautiful and unique creations for a wide variety of tastes and styles. Mainly wirework, often complex and occasionally trendy. My hope is that you will find something you love and cherish for a lifetime.

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Of all the the things Rob Kalin has stated so far, this new little piece of news has me the most concerned. He states: " We'll be changing our tagline next month. But this is a small change. We need to make the marketplace more flexible." For 4 1/2 years the tagline has always been 'Etsy your place to buy and sell all things handmade'. I got the impression that there were already places to sell commercially made things, but a very short supply of truly handmade selling sites. Now, I know businesses have to grow, expand and change with the times, and I also know I don't do well with change so perhaps I am feeling more trepidation regarding this than I should.

It concerns me because back when the search dropdown was arranged to include vintage and supplies, Rob stated then that the focus was always going to be on handmade first. That was the original vision. The inclusion of vintage and commercial supplies was supposed to augment that slowly growing handmade community, and they complement each other, but as I understood it (or wished it) handmade was still the point of the site.

Remember too, that at one time Rob was of the mind to remove vintage and commercial supplies from the site so that the focus remained handmade. The hue and cry from the community apparently made him change his mind, for better or for worse, so they remain, and have grown considerably since then.

Little by little the little niche handmade was starting to carve out for itself began eroding away, with vintage sellers, especially, making demands to be more visible on the site. and commercial supply sellers popping up like freckles on a redheads's nose in the summer.

Maybe it is time to change the focus and the tagline, but then, who will build that site for handmade and stick to that vision that Etsy had early on, that gave so many of us handcrafters a haven from selling next to commercially made items?

That petulant little kid in me wants to tell them,'you go find a site devoted to vintage in categories and advertising, have them allow a handmade category to round out and increase the community and complement it, too. Watch the handmade numbers grow and grow and the handmade sellers become more vocal about what they think they should be entitled to since they pay the same fees. And then one day the CEO comes in and says that the site really needs to have a more flexible marketplace and that the tagline that once stated Vetsy your place to buy and sell vintage is going to be changing. Tell me you would be perfectly fine with that, even though you came to the site in it's early days specifically because it filled the vintage niche. lf you can acept it with no problems, more power to you. I know that isn't my strong suit.
maybe with some discusion, and a look at what the tagline is going to be will change the way I feel, I don't know. But as always, I'm open,

Saturday, December 26, 2009

I never used to say that. When my kids were little, I shopped my heart out, decorated the house the day after Thanksgiving. I put up my manger, complete with lights, I put up a large table for my Christmas Village. I put candle lamps in every window. I had every imaginable Christmas themed candle holder on any available surface and displayed my snowman collection. I spent Christmas Eve (after church, of course) wrapping gifts and artfully arranging everything under the tree. Every label said "From Santa". I put cookies and milk out for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, and made sure it looked like they enjoyed the snack by leaving some crumbs on the plate and just a few drops of milk in the bottom of the glass.

I baked a dozen different kind of cookies, planned Christmas dinner and actually enjoyed preparing it. We visited with friends and family, went to everyone's Christmas parties and sent Christmas cards.

I'm not sure when it all changed, but looking back a few years, I can see that everything became much more of an effort, I enjoyed it less and eventually I started just not doing some of the Christmas rituals. I became more stressed out, year by year, gift by gift, cookie by cookie until last year I just didn't think I could face another Christmas. Or another day. I'll spare you the gory details and just tell you that I suffered a major depressive episode and dragged not only myself, but my family through hell.

When I think of all I didn't do this year in preparation for Christmas, my dear husband pointed out all that I DID do this year. It's been a long, hard road, and my journey is far from over. I'm not in that dark place I was a year ago, but I'm not my old self either. Today is one of my better days. I"m not sure if it's relief that Christmas is over, or the fact that I slept until 1pm today, lol. It's moments like this that I get just that faintest glimmer of feeling like my old self. Somewhere inside me, I still remember what it feels like to be happy.

I'm not sure why I'm putting this in my blog. I'm not usually one to share this kind of personal stuff. Maybe I hope someone might see themselves and know they aren't alone. Maybe I just want to chronicle this moment in time to see how far I've come a year from now. Maybe I want people to remember that there are real people out there in internet land, and not everyone is all happy and shiny. And maybe I just need to know I'm not alone.

Whatever the reason, I hope those of you who read this had a nice Christmas, and that the New Year is filled with good health and happiness.

And though they don't read my blog, I just want to thank my husband and daughter for being there for me. Without their love, understanding and support I would not be here. I love you both more than you will ever know.